The Best Medicine
by Lyta Padfoot
Summary: [One shot] Ravenclaw.... boring? The first years embrace the philosophy that laughter is truly the best medicine.


They aren't mine only their personality and back stories are. Terry Boot and the rest of the Ravenclaw crew (names and all) belong to Rowling.

****

"The Best Medicine"

It was Valentine's Day, but one would never know it by glancing about the Ravenclaw table in the Great Hall. The first years occupied their usual seats, but a definite gloom hung over the table, as though an execution was impending.

"Only Snape would have an assignment due on Valentine's Day." Terry Boot grumbled into his porridge. He put a few spoonfuls in his mouth and swallowed absently, but not being hungry he finally settled for stirring this breakfast instead of eating it.

Even Lisa Turpin, who had the assignment done last week seemed a trifle pale. So far her potions mark was among the best in their year. "Could you please stir a little quieter?" She snapped as Terry's spoon loudly clanked against the side of the bowl.

"Sorry, nerves."

Just then the mail arrived. Mr. E (not his real name) the mildly psychotic owl belonging to Terry's brother Thomas, a sixth year (neither of the Boot brothers would reveal the creature's full name and many lazy hours had been spent offering insane guesses on the train ride back after Christmas) landed on his master's head. Mr. E allowed the letter, still bearing an indentation from his beak, to fall on Thomas' nose knocking his glasses into his milk. The scraggly gray owl, which looked remarkably like a feathery rat, appeared amused.

"Who is it from." Terry demanded of his brother.

Thomas scowled at him and wiped off his glasses before opening the letter. Mr. E. proceeded to attack Terry's cereal, but he had given up eating it anyway.

"Its from Mom and Dad, the usual stuff: love, you miss you, behave yourselves, if we get another owl... you can read it later." Thomas announced, shoving the letter into his book bag before Terry could snatch it away.

Clarence, the owl belonging to Mandy Brocklehurst's father, swooped down gracefully and landed just shy of Mandy's cereal. The owl preened and Mandy stroked his head affectionately before Clarence permitted her to unfasten the letter tied to his leg.

"What's your Dad have to say?" Padma Patil asked Mandy conversationally.

If Mandy heard her she gave no response. A minute later she got up from the table without a word.

"Why did Mandy leave?" Lisa asked Padma.

"I don't know." Padma answered. "She got a letter from home, started to read it and bolted from the table like a werewolf was on her heels."

"It was a white envelope." Terry noted. "Couldn't be a howler."

"You have howlers on the brain. You are lucky you're Muggle-born and your parents can't send you any. That could cure your fascination real quick." Lisa said with a disapproving glare worthy of their Transfiguration teacher. "It was probably bad news from home."

Terry looked to the path Mandy had taken only moments before. "I suppose we can ask her later. Anyone willing to place bets on today's potion being NQR?"

Everyone groaned, Lisa shook her head. Potions was Terry's worst subject and Lisa's best. Lisa was determined to be Head Girl and had already fixed upon her Potions marks as being the most likely weak point to shore up and was almost fanatical in her attention to the subject. A fanaticism that already paid off in having the highest potions average of any first year. Terry, who easily spent thrice the amount of time huddled over his potions book as he did any of his other course books, seemed somehow incapable of translating the instructions into the potion they were supposed to concoct, his were always off in someway. His sleeping potion simmered a tad too long, his remembrance potion was underdone and he had added the grated dragon toenails too soon, and his pixie repellant was soupy instead of firm. It was a running gag among the Ravenclaws that Terry's potions were always N.Q.R. or Not Quite Right, though he could always remember the twelve uses for dragon's blood or why Confusing Potions don't contain unicorn hair. That he failed to master the practical aspect of the subject was a source of endless frustration that he typically turned to fodder for jokes at his own expense.

Today they were making a cheering potion. Privately Terry liked the concept but wondered if the dreary atmosphere of the dungeon would work against the potion. Mandy had not returned yet and Terry was completely on his own. He carefully prepared the ingredients. Then he lit the fire under his caldron. Terry apprehensively poured in the elf tears. They were supposed to turn white when the boiled, but somehow it seemed his never did.

Snape swished past Padma in his trademark long black robes to peer into Terry's caldron with an exasperated sigh. "I do not understand why your potions consistently turn out wrong. Pay more attention." Snape said in the disdainful tone he reserved for all non-Slytherins. "At least yours don't eat through caldron bottoms." He grumbled eyeing a dark smear on the floor a few feet away.

Terry had heard about Neville Longbottom's lack of success in this subject and was guiltily grateful that someone was worse than he was. Terry suspected most of the heaps of torment Snape piled on Longbottom were more due to his being a Gryffindor than to his difficulty with the class. Several Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws had once agreed that Snape hoarded the worst of his venom for the Gryffindors and that the worst they got was a pale shadow in comparison.

_Pale shadow it may be, _Terry thought_, I still want to crawl under the table every time he comments on one of my potions!_

After battling with his potion, which finally worked (sort of) but was too diluted for anything resembling the marks Lisa received, Terry trudged out of the dungeon and met his friends in the hallway_._

"Another N.Q.R. potion." Terry said glumly. "I sure wish Mandy had been there."

"I'm really worried about Mandy." Lisa stated digging into her book bag. "It is not like her to miss class."

"Especially Snape's class." Terry agreed.

"Do you think maybe her Dad is sick? She doesn't have much in the way of family and they're really close." Padma asked, pausing to flick a piece of dust off her robes.

Lisa shrugged. "There are so many possible explanations. We are drawing unwarranted assumptions after all. It could be that she suddenly felt ill. Maybe she ate some hexed Valentine's candy. I heard the Slytherins are passing stuff like that around."

"Maybe she'll turn up at lunch." Terry suggested. "If she does, I'll tell her a joke. My mom always said laughter is the best medicine."

Lunch came and went without sight of their friend. 

"Now I'm crossing the line from worried into full blown panic." Lisa said as they filed into History of Magic. "Think Binns will notice if I slip out before he arrives?"

Terry snorted. "Binns didn't even notice his own death."

"He never gets our names right, either. If you want to go, do it now. He'll be here any minute." Padma hissed.

Lisa nodded. She picked up her book bag.

"Good luck." They called as she opened the door. Lisa favored them with a hopeful thumbs up.

Padma turned to Terry after Lisa was gone. "She must really be worried."

Terry ran a hand through his hair and flashed a weak smile at Padma. "I'm worried too." He glanced at the doorway. "I hope she doesn't run afoul of Filch."

Padma placed her hand on his reassuringly. Just then Binns entered the room. He began his lecture on the formation of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement without ever noticing that the class was two students smaller than normal.

Lisa rejoined them after class. She appeared flushed and slightly out of breathe. "I didn't find out anything. She's not in the hospital. Almost got detention for my trouble, too."

Dejected, they trooped to the tapestry of the owl with the jeweled collar.

"Persephone." Lisa barked.

The tapestry rolled itself up and the wooden door it concealed neatly opened for the students to climb through. As Terry climbed back out he remembered the first time he had entered the Ravenclaw common room. His first though was to wonder how they got the furniture through the door. 

Mandy had laughed herself silly when he told her that thought. Lisa and Padma had too, but they all came from magical families when such considerations, such as a couch being too big to go up a flight of stairs, never entered into the equation. 

He must have missed something she said, because Padma elbowed him sharply just then.

Sitting in the armchair farthest from the fire, Mandy Brocklehurst leafed absently through the pages of her charms textbook .

"Are you actually planning to read that book or is it just for effect?" Lisa asked 

"Huh?" Mandy said as she looked up. Terry noticed that her pale blue eyes were red from crying. "I guess I'm kind of distracted."

"That much is obvious." Terry said. He moved to the armchair next to Mandy.

"This doesn't have anything to do with that letter you got from home today?" Lisa asked shrewdly. "Padma told me that you practically fled when she asked you about it."

Mandy looked away from her friends and at the painting of Rowena Ravenclaw choosing her first students that hung over the white marble fireplace.

"Mandy?" Terry asked gently, placing his hand on her shoulder. "We were worried about you. Lisa even cut class to see what happened. Mind you it was History of Magic, but I was impressed.

Mandy finally turned back around, her eyes fixed on her shoes. "My mom died yesterday."

"You mom?" Padma asked, bewildered. "I thought..."

"That she was dead already? In a way she was. This just makes it official." Mandy said bitterly.

Lisa looked confused "I don't understand."

"Mom was in St. Mungos. Back when You-Know-Who was in power, she was an Auror, one of the best there was." Mandy's chin rose a bit with bittersweet pride. "She and another Auror were captured and the Death Eaters used them to test some knew potions they had concocted. The other Auror died, but Mom was driven crazy. They said it was because the effects of all those potions combined..."

Lisa hugged her friend. "Oh Mandy, I'm so sorry."

Mandy choked back tears. "They dumped her and the body of the dead Auror in some old dustbins and owled the _Prophet_. My dad found out what happened from the paper before anyone could come and break the news to him."

"How awful." Padma shuddered.

"Yeah, but the part that really ate at my dad was that the Death Eaters who did it to her got off." 

Lisa jerked back. Her brown eyes were wide with horror. "They got off? After what they did to your mom? How?"

Mandy laughed, but without a hint of amusement. "The usual line about having been cursed. They were pretty rich and could hire some good lawyers. Could we please change the subject, I hate thinking about that."

"Sure, what do you want to talk about?" Terry asked awkwardly, racking his brain for the right things to say.

"I don't know."

"How about Professor Quirrell's turban. Anyone want to hazard a guess as to what's behind that smell?" Padma asked with forced levity.

"My cat coughed up a hairball yesterday." Terry offered solemnly.

Lisa, Mandy and Padma stared at him.

"What? You wanted to change the subject. Besides Fish really did. It was this big." He indicated the size with his fingers.

"Fish? Your cat is named Fish?" 

"What, is Mr. E's real name Mouse?"

Terry flustered and turned Valentine pink. "Well actually..."

The girls burst out laughing.

"He looks kind of like a mouse! Besides, I didn't name him."

"Who did, your cat?" Lisa asked.

Terry looked indignant. "No, my brother. Mr. E is his owl. Besides, his full name is Expert Mouse Hunter the Second."

The girls laughed even harder. Mandy nearly fell off her chair and Lisa was holding her stomach. Padma used her sleeve to mop up the tears streaming down her face.

"Expert Mouse Hunter the Second!" She gasped. "What happened to Expert Mouse Hunter the First."

"Probably died of shame..."

"I think I left something on my bed." Terry mumbled, darting off. He paused in the doorway and Mandy still laughing with Lisa and Padma. Their faces were bright red. He went into his dormitory room on his pillow was the envelope Thomas had gotten earlier. Inside was a card. Written in his mother's familiar handwriting was a note on the inside of the card.

__

Dear Boys,

Hope you are behaving yourselves. That last owl the school sent nearly gave Mrs. Field next door a hear attack when she saw it fly into our window. Mr. E crashed into the sliding glass door again, Thomas are you sure that you have stopped feeding that poor thing caffeine? I don't think its very good for owls.

Business has been slow, Valentine's Day will be busy of course, but that is a given since many people want to marry then and they all want fancy cakes! We hired another assistant, his name is Tyler and he does simply wonderful work with ice sculptures.

Anyway your father and I were glad to here from you and hope you are well. Please write back.

Happy Valentine's Day,

Mom & Dad

Terry picked up the picture (not moving) of his parents and have them each a kiss after checking to see that no one was watching.

"I miss you too." He whispered as he set the picture down and stroked Fish, who was curled up into a ball of sooty fur on his bed. Fish's eyes opened to slits and the cat began to purr.

"Fishy, my man it seems you are the only one who always listens and never talks back. I just humiliated myself for a good cause...but they are never going to let me forget it!" Then a thought occurred to him. "Thomas is going to kill me for spilling Mr. E's real name!"

FIN


End file.
